Three Mistakes to Avoid on a DIY Memo Board

I just finished making a French memo board for my craft room, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. This tutorial from Censational Girl was easy to follow. So I won't give instructions here. If you get inspired to try this yourself - just use the link in the previous sentence.

What I do want to share with you is three easy-to-avoid mistakes I made. Now, they don't show enough to keep me from loving this board. They did make it harder to construct and a little less functional than I had hoped. 

So here are three things NOT to do:

#1. Make sure the plywood you buy is thick enough for the upholstery nails or staples you'll be using on the front. 

The cute upholstery nails I love are 7/16" long. My plywood was 1/4" thick underlayment. Oops. Unless you like sharp points scratching your walls, this is not good. Lucky for me, my ingenious husband found a solution by nailing strips of plywood strategically across the back. Otherwise I would have had to buy thicker plywood and start all over.

#2. Get cork that is thick enough for pushpins.

I wanted to glue a layer of cork over the plywood to allow me to use pushpins occasionally. The cork contact paper I found at the home center is too thin. My eagerness to get started on my project blinded me to its deficiency. "Haste makes waste" - I should have continued shopping until I had at least 1/2"cork. 

#3. Examine your fabric carefully before buying and/or cutting.

The remnants of decorator fabric at the fabric store are a great bargain. I paid less than eight dollars for a large piece of cloth in just the right color. I didn't unfold it and look at it carefully first. 

Even then, all would have been well if I had checked it before cutting it to size. There's a chance I could have avoided the little flaw in the weave. Fortunately it isn't TOO obvious. Still, a little more care and that flaw would be on the floor instead of my memo board. 

It's hard to do a project for the first time and have everything go perfectly. This memo board looks great and at 3x3' is big enough to accommodate everything I will want to do with it. (Note: Home Depot cut the wood to size for free!) It's just that now when YOU try it, your project can go even more smoothly and quickly! 

P.S. Here's the tutorial link one more time, in case you missed it: click here.